Re: https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/whounicef-vision-primary-health-care-21...
Dear Geoff
A further thought on your message. As you say the WHO/UNICEF Vision For Primary Health Care aligns closely with the HIFA vision.
While HIFA is concerned with every aspect of evidence-informed policy and practice, we are *especially* concerned with primary health care. Those who work in primary health care are the least well supported in the health system, especially with regards to their needs for relevant, reliable healthcare information to make the best use of available resources. If their needs can be better met, this would save many lives.
The importance of relevance of information, and its applicability in the actual *context* where the health worker is, could potentially be addressed by AI. Has anyone looked into AI's ability to provide context-specific information to, say, a community health worker in Mozambique? Might every health worker be able to configure AI so that it always provides information that is relevant?
A broad definition of 'primary health care' would include preventive care, self-care, and care by family and lay providers in the home and community. Here also AI could save many lives, especially as more and more people access the internet.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org